Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Sorry my blog has been on a summer hiatus for awhile. Summer school kicked my ass and summer school finals really kicked my ass!! Not to mention a couple of my regular commenter’s stopped commenting (you know who you are) and I was blog discouraged BUT I am back and ready to blog. Plus I have a CLASSIC 4th of July story for you, so read on!! I promise its worth it!

4th of July Rocks!! It is by far my favorite summer holiday!! I am such patriotic girl and love the chance to celebrate America!! Sadly I think so many American’s today lack the nationalism that other countries have. I hope that you aren’t in that group, I know I am not!! I am proud to be American!! YAY!! Plus any excuse to hang outside and BBQ is awesome in its own right!! Also I finished summer school the day before and needed a break!!

Our plan was to head down to Newport to help our friend out at his Segway shop, hang out the beach and then head towards home for a party and fireworks show on our lake. My day started off perfect because when the alarm went off Danny said the greatest words I could ever hear, “babe, why don’t you sleep a little longer before we head out!” You all know how I love my sleep, no need to twist my arm!! After another 30 minutes of sleep I felt great!! I got ready for the day and we were out the door.

We made a brief stop at Danny’s favorite doughnut shop and barely made it into the peninsula before the shut it down to incoming traffic. Newport and Balboa (well I guess any beach) get crazy packed on 4th of July (so packed it could be dangerous…I am just saying, no particular reason why…just that it COULD be dangerous) and there we people everywhere. Not to mention there were cops everywhere, totally not the day to act out but of course it is the day people get totally wasted and…act out!! Hehehehe.After hanging out in the Segway shop for a little while, Danny, myself and the three guys decided to head out to enjoy the weather, after all it was a little slow in the shop because EVERYONE was outside.

The calm before the storm…Everything was nice and peaceful while we stayed in Balboa. Nice calm people and cute houses everywhere. There were lots of people out but it wasn’t overly crowded. We were in the section of “owned” homes and everyone was having family time.

I had a fun time in Balboa, calm and drama free (if I want to appear in my own blog I usually have to take my own pictures).

It was time to head towards the Newport Boardwalk…oh if only I would have stayed in Balboa!!

So up until this point I thought it was crowded down at the beach but I didn’t realize how crowded!! The boardwalk was insane, I mean it was an accident waiting to happen…again I am just saying…no reason…just saying it was very crowded and ANYONE could get hurt!!

Here are the guys cruising past Cabo Cantina (where Danny and I almost witnessed a girl fight later in the day).

The park on the beach! I think this is great….two awesome things together, a park and a beach, perfection. Plus there were BBQ’s everywhere and they were even selling grilled corn on the cob…YUM!! Too bad the guys wouldn’t let me stop.

Now remember that nice pretty family house in Balboa (if not scroll up), all calm with the family hanging out. As we moved along the boardwalk into the beach “rental” houses the scenery changed. No longer were we in the land of calm but in the land of college kids and I don’t know anyone that would call college kids at the beach calm. Just to better set the scene the houses began to look like this:

Yes, that is a little known version of Plinko…"Drinko".

And there were people in the streets everywhere; the streets were closed off to cars so they were just full of people! It was pure madness.

So as I was looking cute, crusin down the boardwalk on my Segway, the guys were all ahead of me and it was wall to wall people. It was a competition of us, bikes and masses of people. So as I was falling behind the guys further I thought to myself, I need to catch up or they are just going to leave me all together. As I surveyed the possible route through all the people, I waited till it looked safe and made my move; I guess I should have surveyed the crowds a little longer. As I ATTEMPTED to move around two bikes so I could pass them another bike was coming at me head on so I moved closer towards the edge of the sidewalk and the sand. Yep I said sand, oh and at the exact moment that I moving into the sand I was in front of a house where about 75 people were out on the patio watching everyone on the boardwalk…an audience if you will. So as my wheel headed into the sand, I am sure you can guess what happened. I went FLYING off the Segway!! I launched off it, though the sand and landed firmly on the sidewalk, all with my audience cheering me on! I landed with a huge thud; in fact this is what alerted my party that was still ahead of me that I fell. To put it as Danny said, “it sounded like a bomb went off”!!

I sat on the ground, STILL HOLDING THE SEGWAY UP MIND YOU, for a few minutes trying to catch my breath!! Danny and the guys came back to help me and another guy from the party too…but I just didn’t want to get up!! It hurt!! It hurt everywhere!! Once I was finally able to get up and back on the Segway, as I rolled away one guy yelled that he got the whole thing on video!! Perfect…so maybe if you go to You Tube I will be there. Another girl offered me a shot…she said it was totally deserving of a shot. I had to decline because to be honest I couldn’t see straight and I was totally sober!

Danny kept asking me if I was embarrassed for falling in front of all those people, and it was a LOT of people. But to be honest, while I wish it wouldn’t have happened I figured hey what could I do, I did do it and its over. Someone else said to me, “oh that sucks but it is just one of those crazy, random things that happen.” No it wasn’t just a crazy random kind of thing, for me this is a totally normal thing, nothing to be surprised at (see previous post where I, a 29-year-old-girl, fell out of bed). Maybe that is why I wasn’t too embarrassed. Hehehehe.

Also if I wouldn’t have fallen I wouldn’t have this fun blog posting. I guess I am just here to entertain all of you because as soon as we got back to the Segway shop I gave Danny the camera and said, “Take pictures of my injuries! I have to blog about this!!” Most people would want to keep a Segway accident on the down low BUT NOT ME!!

So with out further delay, my war wounds!!All injuries were on the right side of my body…I fell onto that side and held the Segway with my left-side. Some how I got one wound on the inside of my left foot, I must fall very creatively.

And my shoulder one was pretty bad since I slid along the sidewalk.

My hands, a futile attempt to brace myself from the fall.

For the grand finale…here is the bruise I was lucky enough to receive on my right thigh (and this is the bruise post accident, day 5)!! Thanks to Danny for his suggestion of placing the quarter next to it so that people could see how big it really was. Hey, I like to be realistic here!!

I guess I went from my figurative summer school ass kicking straight into a literal ass kicking!! Hehehehe. But you know what? If I had to pick one to do over again I would totally pick the literal one!!

Oh and after taking these pictures my camera died. A causality of my accident.

I can’t lie and say I was feeling great after my fall because I wasn’t. I tried to pretend for awhile but I just couldn’t keep the act up. After we left Newport, we made a quick pit stop at the party we were set to attend. I felt bad because we could only stay long enough to say hello and apologize for my clumsiness. I was sad to leave because Al’s (Danny’s friend) house was BEAUTIFUL and they had a Pina Colada machine!! We headed home where I could relax for a few minutes before the firework show. We live right on RSM lake…it is about 50 feet out our front door and they do a firework show off the lake every year.

Just for a bonus, here is a picture I took of the lake the other day.

As I have mentioned several times on my blog, we have awesome neighbors, thanks to Royal and Karen who saved us a prime spot on the lake for the show. People in RSM take the show very seriously and start setting their blankets out two days before.

While I heard they had to cut the budget for this years show, I thought it was great!! Watching the show made me aware of how grateful I am too all the men and women who serve of country, they make it possible for us to have the freedoms we do. For them fireworks in the sky are a nightly occurance…the only difference is their life is on the line. So many people take the life we live in America for granted which is truly sad. AMERICA ROCKS!!!!

What did you do for 4th of July? I hope yours was as eventful as mine (but with fewer injuries).

I may sound dumb, but let me preface it with I am NOT A GAME PERSON...what is blinko?

As for the segway experience. Yes, ouch, and it sucks, but I agree...great blogging material. I do the same thing. Things that should be embarassing, are somehow blog worthy. Benefit?: at least you become at peace with WHO YOU ARE :)

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